Bird
by dochar ar bith ann
Summary: Oh, you should have seen it. See, this blue jay has him halfway down his throat, and Hopper is in there, kicking and screaming, and I'm scared, I'm not going anywhere near there... Aw, come on, it's a great story! .....Ever wanted to hear that story?


Hi, everybody!

This is a oneshot I decided to write, because there aren't nearly enough Hopper stories out there.

Summary: "Oh, you should have seen it. See, this blue jay has him half way down his throat, and Hopper is up there, kicking and screaming, and I'm scared, I'm not going anywhere near there... Aw, come on, it's a great story!"

Ever wanted to hear that story?

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the fine folk at Pixar, and not me.

On with the show!

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Bird

Hopper rubbed carelessly at his eye; concentrating on small things made it ache. His mouth twisted into a scowl of concentration as he eyed the chords on the page.

"How do they expect anyone to play that?" He muttered under his breath. Nevertheless, he followed the chord progression experimentally, left hands sliding over the fretboard so fast they were almost blurred.

The guitar produced a series of deep, resounding chords, and he grinned. He'd gotten it. Now there was just the chorus and then a few Em/C changes. Easy stuff.

"Heya Hop."

"Go away," he snapped. He was in no mood to be talking to his brother now.

Molt waltzed into the room, uncaring. "Mom says hurry up or you'll be late."

Growling, Hopper carefully set down the guitar and grabbed his bag. Molt was lucky. His school didn't start for another hour.

"Hey Hop, can I play your guitar after you leave?"

"Touch it and die." His bad eye twitched. Molt_ knew_ he wasn't allowed to touch his guitar. Sometimes Hopper was sure his brother was only doing it to annoy him. He rubbed angrily at his eye.

Molt shrugged. "Okay. No problem. I won't. Hey, is you eye hurting again?"

"No. Go away."

"'Cus, you know you could always wear your glasses. I mean, I think they look kind of co-"

Molt's suggestion stopped abruptly, probably owing to the fact that Hopper had uncerimoniously reached out and seized him by the throat.

Hopper tightened his grip slightly, lips twisting in a furious scowl. Molt _always_ had to bring up those _stupid_ glasses! To Molt it was all such a big, hilarious _joke_! Just a way to get even with his older brother, something else to needle him about- Those stupid, dopey glasses with the one lense blacked out. Even if he _did_ see better with them on, they weren't worth the ridicule. Not by a mile.

Molt was truly beginning to choke. "Hopper! _Hopper_!" he gasped breathlessly.

Hopper's eyes narrowed. "I _swear_, if you mention those _one more time_ you will never make it to high school!" he hissed.

Molt nodded wordlessly, and Hopper loosened his grip slightly. His brother took a huge breath. Then another stream of words gushed from his fat mouth.

"At this rate, you're never gonna make it either!"

Hopper scowled. Much as he hated to admit it, Molt was right. He didn't want to ruin his first day by showing up late. Making a noncommital noise, he dropped his brother into the dirt of his bedroom floor and headed for the door. Just before marching through it, he turned back to Molt. "Remember, touch it and die," he added, catching the tiny look his brother had cast the guitar.

He swung his backpack over one shoulder and half-ran to the living room to say goodbye to his mother. She looked up at him from her bed on the couch.

"Hop, have you been fighting with your brother again?" She said, in a voice that was still surprisingly strong. She'd been a stage singer once, even if now she could only barely stand.

He slumped slightly, casting about for some way to explain himself. Mom always took Molt's side of things. Molt was the _good_ boy. The one who didn't go getting himeslf into fights. Who'd never come home at night with a broken leg and a slashed-up eye.

But he'd never been able to lie to her. Not really. One look at her thin, drawn face and all resistance melted away.

"He was teasing me, Mom," he said in an almost pleading tone of voice, "He was laughing about the glasses again."

His mother sighed, exasperated by both her children. "I'll talk to him. But you have to learn not to let it get to you."

He sighed, though he was slightly relieved she hadn't chewed him out worse. "I know..."

She nodded. "Well, you'd better get going or you're going to be late."

He leaned in to hug her. "Bye, Mom."

"Bye, Hopper." Her embrace felt weak and shivery, and for a second, he didn't want to pull away. But he knew he had to.

Sparing her one last glance, he hefted his bag and jogged out the door, wings buzzing to life as soon as he was over the threshhold. He was a fast flyer. If he kept up a good speed he'd still be on time.

But he'd barely gotten six inches when he suddenly jerked to a hovering stop.

There they were, two feet in the distance. The Rosetti boys. His future high school classmates, and the bane of his existance. Probably skipping school. It was like them.

With them were five or six others, many of whom he recognized as students of his new school. These were the tough kids, the ones who skipped out on class and mouthed off in front of teachers and started fist fights in the hallways. The cool ones.

And next to them...

Hopper felt his stomach drop into his feet. Rosa.

She was leaning against the stalk of a clover, watching the boys assing off and laughing her clear, bell-like laugh. The sun was hitting her golden skin, making her _glow_.

That was it. He had to come over there, had to show them, had to show _her_ that her he was just as cool as they were. Getting to school on time didn't matter so much, he decided. After all, it was the first day! What was he going to miss, the introduction speeches? Big deal!

Mom would be mad. Worse, she'd be _disappointed_.

_But she'll be proud again when she sees what a beautiful, smart, charming girlfriend I'll have_, he told himself. Dropping his pack behind a rock, he turned swiftly towards the gang.

They were gathered around the base of the small, stunted tree that grew amongst the weeds in the rocky soil, kicking fruitlessly at its mammoth trunk. "Hey mister birdy!" they were yelling, "wake up!"

Hopper watched them for a few seconds, uneasy. He'd heard the rumors that a blue jay had nested there, and baiting it seemed like a completely terrible idea.

Then Rosa let out another bright, clarion laugh, and joined in their chant.

That settled it. He buzzed in for an agile landing, his wings folding neatly behind his back. "Hey guys," he grunted, just loud enough that they'd notice him.

The Rosettis turned to look, and twin grins stretched across their wide faces. "Well hey, _Hopper_," said Carlos, the older one, "Today your first day of school?" He said it in a saccharine, mocking tone, but Hopper was ready for him.

"It would be if I didn't have better things to do," he said casually.

The younger of the Rosettis, Dom, let out a thick snigger. "Yeah, like lose more fights?"

Inwardly, Hopper raged at the two. They always, _always_ had to bring that up.

Over a year ago, Hopper had gotten into a fight with the Rosetti's cousin Marco. It had been after school, over something stupid and pointless that they'd both been too "tough" to back down about. It had been vicious. And Hopper had lost.

Even now, he was still nursing his damaged pride, as well as one of the more permanent wounds. And these two never let him forget it.

Thanks to them, the story that Hopper had gotten into a fight and _lost _had circled their middle school like wildfire. They'd told the story whenever they could, and they'd laughed the hardest at him and those stupid glasses he'd had to wear. Thanks to them, Hopper had been called every name under the sun, from weakling to loser to ant. That stupid fight had nearly turned him into an outcast.

But now he was going to a new school, where he could leave all that behind. Or so he'd hoped.

"No," he answered coolly, "more like hang out. I'm not gonna let those teacher losers tell me what to do."

Rosa raised her eyebrows.

The Rosettis sniggered again. "Well then Hop, if you got nothin' else to do, why don't you go up there and yell at that stupid bird?"

Hopper raised a brow. "Why don't you? Ya too scared?" He asked, though his stomach was sinking to the soles of his feet. This had to be an awful idea.

"We wanna see you do it," they grunted.

Rosa grinned, excitement creeping onto her beautiful features.

Hopper smirked, trying to hide his nervousness and look as if it were nothing. "Sure," he said coolly, alighting slightly shakily into the air.

It was a long flight to the knothole at the top of the tree, where the fabled nest lay. _Surely there's no real bird up here. They're just rumors. They can't be true._

But in all too short a time, he was at the knothole. He took a long, deep breath, sparing a glance at the miniscule faces of the grasshoppers below. This was it. _Here goes nothing_.

"Hey, you overgrown sack of feathers!" He called, in as loud a roar as he could muster, "Ya hungry? Wake up, ya big stupid-"

_Chhirp._

Oohhh, no.

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Molt sat on his living room floor, stuffing leafbooks into his already bloated bag. His mind was on school, and so he paid almost no attention to the incoherent shouts that were reaching his ears from outside.

Not so for his mother. She scowled. "Molt, would you go outside and see what all that racket is about?" She asked.

Grumbling, he lifted himself to his feet and slouched out the door.

Not really in the mood to fly, he shuffled clumsily through the grass around his door, following the sound. To his surprise, it sounded almost exactly like Hopper. Once he was free of the antenni-hight grass, he cast around to see where it was coming from. It didn't take long.

The screams (which was what they were now) were coming from above, somewhere near the tree. Molt looked up, unnerved by their intensity. And let out a yelp himself.

Barelling towards their house at breakneck speed was the far-off but unmistakeable form of Hopper. And behind him, was...

"Ahhhhhh! B-Bird!_ BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRD!"_

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Hopper was dimly aware of more screams reaching his ears from the ground, becoming fainter as his "friends" fled in terror. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was to _fly_.

It seemed like his house was getting further and further away. And he could feel the heat of the bird behind him.

Blood pumped behind his ears, his heart beating like a drum. He was only half-aware that he was screaming. The bird was gaining.

He tried desperately to dodge, to zigzag away and confuse it, but it matched his every move, gaining further in that split second it took him to turn.

He pushed his wings to their limit, _past_ their limit. Sweat popped on his face. His eyes were wide.

Then the beak snapped shut around him, and everything went dark.

He could feel something hot and wet below him, pushing him back, back down into the throat. All around him was hot and humid and black.

He was in its mouth.

It was _eating _him.

He let out a scream louder than he would have ever thought possible. The tongue shifted horribly underneath him, and he could _feel_ himself slipping back, down into the throat. The moist mouth walls closed around him.

Now he wasn't aware of anything. Not that he was kicking and flailing, the sharp spurs on his ankles biting into the hot flesh around him. Not that he was screaming harder than he'd ever screamed in his life.

Only that the walls were closing in on him, that the hot, wet darkness was crushing him and swallowing him into nothing. He could feel himself slipping, falling, sliding down the creature's throat...

And then there was an incredible jolting motion, and a gunshot sound, and light filled his eyes. He felt cool air against his skin.

Suddenly pure instinct took over, and he flew towards the light. He flew, barely aware of what had happened, but not caring, only caring that he was _flying,_ that he was getting _away _from that horror, as fast as he possibly could. A force alien to him had taken hold of his wings. All he could feel was the rushing of the sweet, cool wind.

He had no clue where he was going; the concept of places beyond _out here_ and _in there _was suddenly beyond him. But that same alien instict drove him down, away, into the thick grass. He scrambled under it and collapsed, panting, his heart thundering and his wings numb. He only barely saw the great dark shape above him pause, fluttering and choking, then turn tail and soar off into the blue sky.

He wasn't sure how long he lay there, or if it was really happening, but eventually he heard voices and a pair of stubby arms were lifting him up. In a daze he felt himself being carried, heard the buzzing of wings. Then there was a sudden jolt and he was lying on a soft surface. Somewhere above him he could hear a familiar voice.

"_Hoppy? Hopper, are you alright? It's okay now, the bird's gone. Are you alright?_"

_Mom?_

The realization was just enough to rouse him from his trance. He opened his eyes, blinking, and lifted his head. "Mom?"

His mother let out a tearful burst of breath. "Oh, Hopper, you're alright!" She wrapped him in a shaky hug, tears flowing from her eyes to his shoulder.

He blinked again, still dazed. "Uh...bird..."

She pulled back from the hug and looked him in the eye. "It's okay now. The bird's gone. It's gone."

Hopper felt his muscles go limp. _Gone._

Molt was sitting on the couch opposite him, the one normally reserved for their mother. He looked shocked and slightly pale. "Wow, Hops, you gave us a real good scare that time."

Hopper didn't even have the presence of mind to roll his eyes. He felt cold and shaky.

Mom pulled him into another hug. "I never knew there was really a bird up there; I thought it was just a rumor... But you're safe now, Hopper, we're going to move away from here and you're never going to see that bird ever again..." Her thin arms tightened around him. "You're safe now..."

He leant into his mother's embrace, shaking almost as badly as she was.

But it was not the last he'd see of birds.

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Well, that was sort of a cruddy ending, but please review and tell me what you think!

I love you all (Almost as much as I love Hopper),

Till My Head Falls Off


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